1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic fastener supplier for aligning and supplying fasteners, e.g., screws, rivets, etc, and, more particularly, to a fastener supplier in which a track and associated parts thereof can be easily changed so as to be applied to fasteners of different diameters in the shanks thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Application No. 4-32183 discloses a automatic fastener supplier, which is shown in FIG. 1 and FIGS. 2a and 2b of the drawings.
The automatic fastener supplier includes a frame 1 defining a receiving section 2; an inclined track 4 for guiding fasteners S to exit the receiving section 2, wherein the inclined track 4 includes a slot 3 extending outwardly from an interior of the receiving section 2 for receiving the shanks Sa of the fasteners S via a top thereof, while the heads Sb of the fasteners S are retained above the slot 3; and a vibratile feeding plate 6 which is mounted behind the inclined track 4 and which includes a slot 5 similar to that of the inclined track 4, wherein the slot 5 is connected to the slot 3 of the inclined track 4 at an upper end thereof.
The feeding plate 6, under vibrations of a vibration mechanism 7, lifts the fasteners S inside the receiving section 2 and makes the shanks Sa of the fasteners S (which have been inserted into the slot 5 of the feeding plate 6) slide along the slot 5 in the ejecting direction. When the fasteners S reach the connection point between the upper end of the slot 5 of the feeding plate 6 and the slot 3 of the inclined track 4, the fasteners S are transported to the slot 3 of the track 4 and thus slide downwardly and are outputted in an aligned, one-by-one manner. Under this condition, since the track 4 is inclined, the adjacent fastener heads Sb might be overlapped with one another and thus results in jamming during movements thereof as the fastener heads Sb presents a V-shaped wedge effect therebetween. Responsive to this, a constraining plate 8 is provided to prevent overlapping of the fastener heads Sb.
In addition, a stop 9 is provided to a side of a front end of the track 4 for preventing further movement of the fasteners S which have reached the front end of the track 4. Thus, the fasteners S may be removed at a guiding section 9a of the stop 9 by a head of a screw driver B.
Nevertheless, the above-mentioned automatic fastener supplier cannot be applied to fastener shanks of different diameters since the width of the slot 5 cannot be adjusted and that the track 4 cannot be replaced by the users as being fixedly mounted to the frame 1. Therefore, the prior art automatic fastener supplier has a limited application as it can be applied to only one size of the fasteners S. In addition, the users have to purchase different feeding devices for fasteners of different shank diameters which results in a considerable increase in the cost.
Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide an improved automatic fastener supplier which mitigates and/or obviates the above problems.